a city.

WEALTH OF NATIONS: BOOK III., CHAP. IV.

The _planta-genista_ or broom having been ordinarily used for strewing
floors, became an emblem of humility, and was borne as such by Fulke, Earl
of Anjou, grandfather of Henry II., King of England, in his pilgrimage to
the Holy Land. The name of the royal house of Plantagenet is said to be
derived from this circumstance.

HUNT'S EXEMPLARS OF TUDOR ARCHITECTURE.

Eleven continued to be the dining hour of the nobility, down to the middle
of the seventeenth century, though it was still kept up to ten o'clock in
the Universities, where the established system is not so easily altered as
in private families. . . . The lord and his principal guests sate at the
upper end of the first table, which was therefore called the lord's
board-end. The officers of his household and inferior guests at long
tables below in the hall. In the middle of each table stood a great
salt-cellar, and as particular care was taken to place the guests
according to their rank, it became a mark of distinction whether a person
sate above or below the salt. . . . Pewter plates in the reign of Henry
VIII. were too costly to be used in common by the highest nobility. In
Rymer's Foedera is a license granted in 1430 for a ship to carry certain
commodities for the express use of the King of Scotland, among which are
particularly mentioned a supply of pewter dishes and wooden trenchers.
'_Octo duodenis vasorum de pewter, mille et ducentis ciphis ligneis._'

ARCHAEOLOGIA.

The use of forks did not prevail in England till the reign of James I.

CORYAT.

In the list of birds served up to table were many fowls which are now
discarded as little better than rank carrion, such as cranes, lapwings,
sea-gulls, bitterns, ruffs, kerlews, etc.

GROSE'S ANTIQ. REPERTORY.

The use of coaches is said to have been first introduced into England by
Fitz-Allan, earl of Arundel, A. D. 1580. Before that time ladies chiefly
rode on horseback, either single on their palfreys, or double, behind some
person on a pillion. In cases of sickness or bad weather, they had
horse-litters and vehicles called chairs, or carrs, or charres. Glazed
windows were introduced into England, A. D. 1180.